wow... That last one is hilarious. Bad enough Irish hate being associated with Italians up here in Brooklyn, I hope for that baker's sake, they don't operate in NY. guess it could have been worse. Could have been a Union Jack. >_>

I love the random capitalization in the baby shower cake. Baby is good, and so is for, but who would have a small b followed by capital OY? And why would the same person who did that have capital S, lower case h and o, then HALF of the W is capital and half is lower case, with the ending of the word capital? It just blows the mind.

Of course nothing says groom like the word groom in semi-fancy capital letters, written in purple in 12 point font on a sheet cake that can only be described as a sea of brown. At least the brown looks like frosting, unlike some of the other brown cakes... (I said sheet cake, S-H-E-E-T!)

The only thing that would be better with the football cake would be if it said "49 in a star" and was on a square cake.

The "Groom" cake could actually be a mandate from the bride's, um, Godfather. As in, "You're gonna shower and get a haircut and not embarrass us at this 'family' event, aren't you, Mickey? 'Cuz otherwise, Uncle Vito's gonna take care of you."

The baby cake looks like it's for comebody who's expecting quadruplets. But, on the other hand, it says "bOY," not "bOYs."

Could these maybe be samples to display at the bakery rather than cakes people ordered?

Of course, that wouldn't explain the "Irish" flag. Or who would want to buy a "foalball shape cake" (or is that "foolball shape cake"?).

The "groom" cake seems like a real time-saver. In fact, county clerk's offices could save a lot of work if they just pre-printed marriage licenses with "Bride" and "Groom," and skipped filling in the individual names. Especially since then people wouldn't need to get a new license for second or third marriages.

I don't think it's a foalball or a football. I think it's a foul ball because it's not even the right COLOR! who ever heard of a white football? and foalball makes me think of pony poop. and again, it's not brown!

Maybe its just a weird picture quality, but the "groom" cake looks photo-shopped. The part where each of the letters meet the cake is a little bit pixelated and looks unnatural. I know this is a mom and pop operation, but perhaps you guys should look into getting some photo authenticating software? A big part of what makes these cakes funny is reading or imagining the back story. That's tainted by running across the occasional obvious photo shop because it makes me wonder if some other cakes are just better photoshops.

Perhaps my laptop isn't rendering the colours as they should, but to me, that "Irish" flag doesn't look even remotely French. It's "Black - Yellow - Red" which is the BELGIAN flag, which I would know, being Belgian.

(BTW, I never admitted to that, as they said when King Boudewijn wasn't dead yet: "There are only two real Belgian, and they can't make a third.")

Perhaps it would be beneficial to click on the picture so you can view it actual size before claiming that it is an "obvious photo shop." And while we're on the subject, who in their right mind would photoshop a cake?

Ah well. This particular cake was photographed during a wedding by a legitimate wedding photographer. He was actually called into the back room by an employee who was too ashamed to bring the cake out to the reception. The employee wanted a record of the cake before it was cut up in the back room and served to the guests.

We spend way too much time verifying these things before they ever make it onto Cake Wrecks.

ooh-la-la! What a barrage of cluelessness today! Not only to do the Irish flag wrong, but then to label it? do you think they realized they screwed up and tried to "fix" it? boy does that look stupid written down on the bottom like that. mais oui! maybe the guests were too drunk to notice the colors were off. hey, it's got stripes, right? pour them a pint and they'll be fine! (the French, however, might be cheesed... ;P )

and wedding cooking? who orders a cookie for a wedding? there should have been a question mark after cooking. like "you seriously wanted to order a cookie for you wedding?" (although "wedding baking?" might have been more appropriate.) wedding cooking? is making me think of hot dogs riding poo waves.

and Mike--maybe the maybe was a large Jewish boy? hard delivery perhaps? Oy! Arguably though, the only lower case letter is "b". The rest are maybe just small capitals my a minimally skilled icing piper who can't seem to make letters of uniform size.

and "s-h-e-e-t cake!" you're funny! seriously, minimalism aside (what, NO decoration?) purple and brown just don't seem to harmonize on cake, do they?

"Coincidentally the Irish are playing the French is some match (probably soccer) soon."

What we in Europe know as "Real Football" as opposed to that strange game involving a lot of prima donnas in padding.

And it doesn't come much more real than France playing the ROI.

That said, the French probably wouldn't mind being associated with the Irish because they are dreadfully fond of them and have historically come to the aid of the Irish in their struggles against the wicked English.

Good thinking, Tara! Very somber suggestion on the serious chocolate desert. or dessert. with no-flower minimalism, it could go either way. Maybe it would be a good "breakup" cake--as if hygiene were the reason for the split.

@anon 11:41, that's a great back story! hmm...either a peeved m-i-l who didn't know the name, or a clueless coworker who just ordered a cake in a jiffy. name? who cares? let's have cake and open presents!

and Taggie, zoom in on the cake. you'll see the writing better, and the unevenness of the letters. plus, it's a perfect match for the purple perimeter dots.

As someone said it is a strange coincidence that this "Irish Flag" shows up just in time for "the soccer game of the year"(there is one nearly every Saturday here...).As long as it's not the English the French wouldn't probably mind much about this wreck! I take the opportunity to thank you for your blog,it's a real treat to read it every day!

so, Jon in France, what's your take on that foul ball? is it a hybrid between an American football and European football (soccer)? It's just the wrong color for American, but the right shape with the train tracks/stitches down the center. but then it's white. With a star. not that it resembles a soccer ball much either.

Either this decorator ran out of chocolate icing (perish the thought!) or is sports clueless. maybe the same baker of the baseball X?

Jen, you should be proud. The French (kings of pastry!) are fans of your blog. Of course, it IS a blog about wrecked cakes *blush on behalf of the US* but a source of endless amusement! Mes amis, bon jour!

I just don't get it. If you are intelligent enough to make a great little football cake, what happens when it's time to write an inscription? I really want to know! It's clear that this decorator isn't stupid! How does it happen?

I'm sorry. Looking at it again, it looks like the pixelation I noticed earlier could occurred when the picture was being converted to jpeg format. Overly compressed jpeg pictures can get weird distortions in them.

Truly! These are too stupid to be real. I agree with some of the other comments: How can someone smart & talented enough to create these cakes be so far off base? http://blog.sweetservices.com/sweetscandyblog/

taggie2b: it's the dramatic color change from brown to purple that makes the JPEG artifacts (aka fuzzies) show up so clearly. In most pictures of this compression level, you would not really notice, because the colors blend much more smoothly.

About the Irish flag with French colors... The French won the match! We'll see who wins this Wednesday... Pretty funny that it appeared before the match and it ended up "coincidentally" being the winning team!!I watched the game, by the way. That is some premonition! Jen and John, where is the cake from? Do you have some background or story on it?

I am thoroughly enjoying your website and slowly working my way back in time through it. Some of the wrecks are hilarious while others should be classified as artwork. I couldn't help but notice that you enjoy making sport of others. This indicates that possibly you feel a teensy weens bit superior (he said with tongue in cheek). However, be advised that on the post for Sunday Sweets: Tour De Force, Pt 3, Sunday, November 15, 2009 you committed a major grammatical faux pas. At the end of the post, you wrote, "Thanks again to all of the bakers who gave their time and effort during our tour! I'm sure I speak for the thousands of people who got sugar buzzes thanks to your efforts when I say, Your the 'Best!'" Yikes! Please note that "Your the Best" is not a good thing. I found this website that may help explain things. http://www.copyblogger.com/5-common-mistakes-that-make-you-look-dumb/. Thank-you for listening. Happy Cake Crumbs Day to you. *Note Here* The author of the above missive is not a member of the Grammar Police and has no afiliation to the website mentioned. Mike

Search This Blog

Wreck the Halls

NEW! Pre-Order Today!

Buy the Book

Buy the NYT Bestseller

What's a Wreck?

What's a Wreck?

A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

order

Where's the book?

We don’t have any copies of Cake Wrecks for sale here, autographed or otherwise. We decided the shipping and handling costs would be too high to make it worth your while. So instead, buy your copies locally or online and then order personalized bookplates: it’s cheaper, easier, and I think even looks a bit nicer.

Ordering Info

Payments must be made through Paypal, which accepts all major credit cards. Sorry, but that means no checks or MOs or barter-based chickens.

We ship everything first class USPS, and will do our best to have your package in the mail within 2 days of your order.